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Reverse Zoonosis in Tuberculosis: A group of researchers have found evidence of reverse zoonosis in the transmission of tuberculosis. Reverse zoonosis means human-to-animal and animal-to-human transmission. The observance was made by researchers at Tamil Nadu’s National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Dr S Sriram of ICMR-NIRT said that there is a possibility and evidence of Tuberculosis transmission from animals to humans and vice versa. He observed that this happens through aerosols that are generated from tuberculosis patients as it is an airborne disease.
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What is Reverse Zoonosis?
The researchers observed that when a TB patient speaks, coughs or sneezes or sings, lots of aerosols are generated from the nose and oral cavity, which get expelled and become the source of exposure for various other organisms including animals.
When animals such as domestic animals or cattle are at exposure to these aerosols, they have a possibility of getting infected with tuberculosis. There have also been evidences of reverse transmission from animals to human beings.
According to a research conducted by the ICMR-NIRT in Chennai, the presence of mycobacterium tuberculosis was discovered in both animal handlers and animals.
Reverse Zoonosis in Tuberculosis Study
The researchers had conducted the studies in animal handlers in Chennai, where they found presence of mycobacterium tuberculosis in animals and similar strains were also found in the animal handlers who were working in those slaughterhouses. This gave the researchers evidence for the transmission that happens between the human beings and animals.
TB infection through unpasteurized milk?
The researchers stated that there is also a possibility of transmission of mycobacterium tuberculosis infection from unpasteurized milk. If an animal has the infection then it could get transmitted to the milk samples and may risk exposure to the infection for those consuming the milk without pasteurization.
ICMR-NIRT Dr. Sriram recommended consumption of pasteurized milk to avoid any such risk of mycobacterium transmission.
Significance
The Union Health Ministry aims to eradicate tuberculosis by 2025. The goal also includes research on the environment and zoonosis. Dr. Sriram said that considering the goal of TB elimination by 2025, we need to have an understanding of where the reservoirs for tuberculosis are location.
He said it may be in the environment or in animals, or even in domestic and wild animals. He stated that they there is a lot of evidence of mycobacterium in wildlife like elephants. These are also evidence that there is a transmission going on between non-human host.
He further stated that once we move towards elimination, we need to be completely devoid of all these reservoirs to ensure further transmission does not happen.
TB treatment duration to be reduced
Experts aim to bring down the TB treatment duration from 6 months to four months. Currently, the treatment duration for drug-sensitive TB is 6 months and even longer for drug-resistant TB. However, the experts aim to bring it down to four months and six months respectively.
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